Capillary zone electrophoresis of humic acids from the American continent

A multicomponent background electrolyte (BGE) was developed and its composition optimized using artificial neural networks (ANN). The optimal BGE composition was found to be 90 mM boric acid, 115 mM Tris, and 0.75 mM EDTA (pH 8.4). A separation voltage of 20 kV, 20 degrees C and detection at 210 nm were used. The method was applied to characterize several humic acids originating from various countries of the American continent: soil (Argentina), peat (Brazil), leonardite (Guatemala and Mexico) and coal (United States). Comparison with humic acids of International Humic Substances Society (IHSS) standard samples was also done. Well reproducible electropherograms showing a relatively high number of peaks were obtained. Characterization of the samples by elemental analysis and UV spectrophotometry was also done. In spite of the very different origins, the similarities between humic acids are high and by matrix assisted desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF)-mass spectrometry it was shown that most of the m/z patterns are the same in all humic acids. This means that humic acids of different origin have the same structural units or that they contain the same components.     

Mössbauer spectra of ferrous salts of transition metal cyano complexes. A survey

Ferrous salts of ten hexacyanometallates and three tetracyanometallates were obtained and their Mössbauer spectra interpreted according to recent structural models for these families of compounds. Ferrous ferrocyanide (Williamson White) and its ruthenium and osmium analogs prepared mechanochemically are stable for hours, allowing their study by Mössbauer spectroscopy and other related techniques. For ferrous salts of trivalent hexacyanometallate anions, the random distribution of anion vacancies is discarded and a model of two well defined relative positions of CN and H2O ligands around the Fe2+ is suggested. Iron was found octahedrally coordinated in tetracyanometallates.     

Microcionamides A and B, bioactive peptides from the philippine sponge Clathria (Thalysias) abietina

Microcionamides A (1) and B (2) have been isolated from the Philippine marine sponge Clathria (Thalysias) abietina. These new linear peptides are cyclized via a cystine moiety and have their C-terminus blocked by a 2-phenylethylenamine group. Their total structures, including absolute stereochemistry, were determined by a combination of spectral and chemical methods. Compound 1 was shown to slowly isomerize about the C-36/C-37 double bond when stored in DMSO. Microcionamides A (1) and B (2) exhibited significant cytotoxicity against the human breast tumor cells lines MCF-7 and SKBR-3 and displayed inhibitory activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H(37)Ra.     

A simple approach to sensor discovery and fabrication on self-assembled monolayers on glass

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on glass were used as a platform to sequentially deposit fluorophores and small molecules for ion sensing. The preorganization provided by the surface avoids the need for complex receptor design, allowing for a combinatorial approach to sensing systems based on small molecules. The resulting libraries are easily measured and show varied responses to a series of both cations and anions. This technology is transferable from the macro- to the microscale both via microcontact printing (microCP), where the fluorophore is printed onto a glass surface, and via direct attachment of the fluorophore to microchannel walls. The ease of miniaturization of this technology may make the generation of a wide variety of simple yet efficient microarrays possible.     

Pure Picard-Vessiot extensions with generic properties

Given a connected linear algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0, we construct a pure Picard-Vessiot extension for , namely, a Picard-Vessiot extension , with differential Galois group , such that and are purely differentially transcendental over . The differential field is the quotient field of a -stable proper differential subring with the property that if is any differential field with field of constants and is a Picard-Vessiot extension with differential Galois group a connected subgroup of , then there is a differential homomorphism such that is generated over as a differential field by .

     

Mass spectrometric study of aliphatic alpha-carbonyl azides

A series of derivatives of 2-azidoacetic acid and 2-azidoacetone were synthesized and their behaviour under electron ionization conditions was investigated. This paper reports the electron ionization fragmentation mechanisms for five aliphatic alpha-carbonyl azides, which were clarified by accurate mass measurements and B/E linked scans. The substituent influences the abundance and the nature of the ions resulting from the molecular ion fragmentation.     

Instabilities of micellar systems under homogeneous and non-homogeneous flow conditions

The rheological behavior of a cetylpyridinium chloride 100 mmol l^–1/sodium salicylate 60 mmol l^–1 aqueous solution was studied in this work under homogeneous (cone and plate) and non-homogeneous flow conditions (vane-bob and capillary rheometers), respectively. Instabilities consistent with non-monotonic flow curves were observed in all cases and the solution exhibited similar behavior under the different flow conditions. Hysteresis and the sigmoidal flow curve suggested as characteristic of systems that show constitutive instabilities were observed when running cycles of increasing and decreasing stress or shear rate, respectively. This information, together with a detailed determination of steady states at shear stresses close to the onset of the instabilities, allowed one to show unequivocally that "top and bottom jumping" are the mechanisms to trigger the instabilities in this micellar system. It is shown in addition that there is not a true plateau region in between the "top and bottom jumping". Finally, the flow behavior beyond the upturn seemed to be unstable and was found accompanied by an apparent violation of the no-slip boundary condition.     

Temporal cleaning of a high-energy fiber-based ultrafast laser using cross-polarized wave generation

We report the use of cross-polarized wave generation to perform both pulse shortening and temporal cleaning of a high-energy ytterbium-doped fiber-based femtosecond laser system. The nonlinear processes allow both a highly efficient nonlinear conversion of 20% and a large compression ratio of 3.5, with inherently improved coherent and incoherent contrasts. This results in the generation of 37 μJ, 115 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 100 kHz with high temporal quality.